October started out REALLY hot. We had a record-breaking day on October 3. It was 99 degrees. All after-school, outdoor practices were cancelled due to the concern for heat stroke. That just doesn't happen. Global warming is real. WHOA!!!
October 4th was a fun day of volunteering at the kid's schools. I started with serving lunch at the high school. I love to help out when I can because I don't substitute at the high school as much and this is my chance to see the kids once they move on from the middle school. After lunch was over and we had cleaned everything up I went over to the middle school to help out in the library. Mrs. Rogowski had me working in the non-fiction section and weeding out books that are not being used anymore. It is fun and sad at the same time - Fun because I get to spend time in the books and sad because I have to say good bye to some of them. That said, it will be nice to have room in the non-fiction section for all the books to be upright. They will get more use that way. After school, Naomi and I had about an hour and a half to chill and get ready for the football game. I dropped Naomi off with the band at 5:40 and then headed to the middle school to help set up the Spirit Wear store for the big game. I love working in the Spirit Store as well because I get to see all the new stuff and have first dibs. They finally got their hoodie sweatshirts in and I nabbed one. You also get to see everyone when you are in the store. After half-time we packed everything up and got it all back into the school just in time for the end of the third quarter which turned into the end of the game. The refs called it because the score was 56-0. We were the 0 in that score. It was a sad game. We never got past our own 25 yard line. Oh well, we will call it a building year.
The best part of the night was the announcement of the Homecoming King and Queen during half-time. Abby Thomas, the cymbal player for Knight Riders was crowned Queen!!
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| Marching on to the field. |
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| Who says the band is full of geeks?!? We have royalty in our ranks. |
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| This is what the boys do when they are alone in the house. I couldn't get the video to upload, but it is a treat. Nick is dancing around in his unicorn mask and Jeremy is cutting a banana with scissors. Good, innocent fun compared to what they could have been doing. |
October 5th Nick ran in the Wendy's Invitational at McAlpine Park. The weather finally cooled down to a lovely 70 degrees. All of our runners did really well, but I was most excited about Nick's run because he finally realized his goal of lettering in cross country. His final time for his race was 18:52. I met him at the finish line and got the best, most sweaty hug from him. I have never really seen him this excited about anything before. He set a goal for himself and reached it. Way to go, Nick!!!
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| At the start line. |
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| After the race. He really worked hard the last year to get his 5k to a sub-19 time. |
Sunday, October 6th was General Conference. I love conference weekend because everyone is home and we can spend the day together as a family. We had German pancakes for breakfast and empanadas for dinner. There were a lot of dishes to do (3 loads in the dishwasher) but it was worth the good food and family time.
October 9th was NOT my best day. It started off with a mammogram (always lovely), followed by notification that my credit card had been compromised and they were shutting it down and issuing a new one and then I dropped the bottle of spaghetti sauce while fixing dinner. The only saving grace on that last mishap is that it was in a plastic bottle. I guess I could also see that they all happened on the same day as a good thing. I am just trying to find the positive in all of it. The credit card thing is always an issue with me because I truly do not understand how someone could be so dishonest. If you are smart enough and gutsy enough to show the initiative to steal a credit card number then use those smarts and that initiative and get a REAL JOB!!! I was also extra irritated because I was leaving for Atlanta in a couple of days and ... You see my irritation. Oh well - all things happen for a reason.
October 10th Nick and I got to help at the middle school family fun night for the fifth grade. He helped with the scavenger hunt and dishing up pizza and I was in the book fair. I love that the school requires the high school students to complete 10 hours of service in order the successfully complete their year and ultimately graduate.
October 11th I got up and taught a pinch-hit seminary lesson. My team teacher had called the night before from the hospital (with her father-in-law) to tell me she couldn't teach. No problem - got it done. I took a quick shower and got myself packed and was ready to leave when everyone arrived. We drove to Atlanta and found out BNB. It was a nice house in a neighborhood not too far from the convention center. Our hosts, Torrey and Amy, were very welcoming and had everything ready for us. After a brief few minutes of getting settled, we headed back out the door for the evening portion of the convention. The speakers and presenters were amazing. There was a Time Out For Women panel with all the speakers where they answered questions and introduced the topic for the conference. We were then treated to a concert by Nathan Pachecho. His voice is really smooth and it was amazing. Back at the house, Sara, Aleena and Misty all went upstairs and I stayed to talk to our hosts. They are very Christian and were intrigued that we had come for a religious conference. We talked about our religious views, which were very similar, and shared ideas and things we had learned that we especially liked. Torrey shared that Einstein's Theory of Relativity (e=mc2) is a formula for eternity. If you take away the mass (our mortal bodies) then we are energy moving at the speed of light. I thought that was really cool. He also showed me a Bible study tool that he said helped him understand difficult passages (we eventually ended up on the subject of Isaiah). He had a book that compared the King James Version to three other translations side by side. He let me borrow the book to look at while we were staying with them. Eventually I went upstairs to hang with the ladies for an hour or so before heading to bed. It had been a long and fun-filled day and I was exhausted.
October 12th we were up at 7 and out the door by 8. We got there early enough to get really good seats for the day. The Bonner family was up first and they were absolutely amazing. Their musical performances were spread out throughout the day between speakers. Here is a breakdown of the days' speakers:
Brad Wilcox - I always love what he has to say. He started off with the scenario of a lost child and how everyone stops what they are doing to help find that lost child. He then talked about excuses for not coming to church and listed some of the excuses people had given him as to why they might not go to church on any given Sunday. He then asked us to apply these excuses to why we didn't help look for a lost child. They were insanely ridiculous when the scenario changed. The point was that when we don't attend church and do the things we should be doing, Heavenly Father worries about us and wants us to be found. He also talked about the natural man is an enemy to God (Mosiah 2:38). He clarified that the man who does not repent is the enemy to God. The natural man is something we choose and it is a title we can change. God will give us all the answers we need, but we need to choose to ask and then do. Choices in life can be compared to a stop light. The red light and green light answers are easy to interpret. But what about the yellow light answers? Yellow means move ahead with caution. If it feels right, keep going. God will stop you if you are going in the wrong direction (if you are listening). When we help finish His work, His work will help finish us. There is a personal plan of salvation just for me and revelation helps us discover what that personal plan is. We need to remember what God sent us here to do and D&C 42:61 is a big clue. We need to live a celestial life here in order to be able to live a celestial life with God.
Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes (Sistas in Zion) - "How come the perfect church makes such wack people?" We need to stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on God and Christ. Covenants are important. "Be a covenant keeper, not a covenant creeper." Garments are not meant to be altered to fit our fashion. It should be the other way around. Also, we shouldn't modify the commandments to better fit our life. When they were asked if they had ever slept in instead of going to church Tame exclaimed, "I'm not gonna sleep in on Christ!" They were absolutely hilarious! Their comments were spot on and made you think about your relationship with Christ. I love how they kept it light, but very real.
Emily Freeman - Live vertically. To live means to conduct your life in a certain way. Vertically means upward movement or looking for revelation. We need to recognize the sacred moments in our daily lives. Revelation broken down into the 4 r's: 1) recognition of want, 2) request, 3) revelation, and 4) response. All you need is a need. Prayer is the means of obtaining revelation. Be open to the answer you will get. Get up and do what you are asked to do. Revelation turns heartache into hearting (small pieces of stone that make a stone wall so strong). Meet the Lord in His places and you will receive revelation as to what to do. Let Christ into your story.
Barbara Morgan Garner - The priesthood is God's power and is given to everyone on earth. The authority of the priesthood is given to men to act in God's name while doing His work. Read D&C sections 25, 84 and 107 as challenged by President Nelson in the women's session of conference. The power of the priesthood is for everyone. If we don't understand the power we have, how will we know when to use it? Specific questions = specific answers. Pray, pour out your heart to God. Fasting intensifies spiritual power. Study the scriptures. Attend the temple.
Eric and Emily Orton - Turn excuses into reasons. What could go RIGHT? You will learn to do new things. Your trust in yourself and God will increase. When you get stuck you become humble and grateful. Live with intention. Be honest about who you are as a child of God. Let go of limitations. Reduce the noise around you in order to focus and listen to the spirit in our lives. If you increase your experiences with the principle and patterns of life you will increase your ability to receive revelation.
Emily Watts - Revelation - feeling the Holy Ghost. Just because it isn't big doesn't mean it isn't real. Little revelations add up. Learn to act on little promptings. Joseph Smith said, "You grow into the concept of revelation. The Lord will inspire us to serve even when He knows we cannot do it perfectly. We don't always know when to act in another's best interest, but God does. The Spirit often pushes us into a space that is outside our comfort zone. The Lord needs us to get out of our comfort zone. President Ezra Taft Benson said, "Nothing will startle us more than when we walk though the veil and see our Father's face and how familiar it is to us."
Interspersed throughout the day were reflection moments where we were asked to think about what the speakers had presented and how it related to the theme of "He made thee to hear His voice" (Deuteronomy 4:36).
Another fun tid bit from the day was this nugget: "Head, shoulders, knees, toes. If something shows, go change your clothes."
As you can see, it was a very fulfilling day of speakers and entertainment.
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| Misty, Sara, Aleena and me at Time Out For Women in Atlanta. |
After the conference ended we headed into Atlanta proper to go to the international market. There were foods from all over the world. I bought some Brazilian fruit to take home so Jeremy could share it with the family. For dinner we went to Parma's Tavern. Torrey and Amy highly recommended it and it did not disappoint. I was in heaven with my Krispy Kreme burger and brussel sprouts!!
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| Yes, that is a hamburger with Krispy Kreme doughnuts instead of a bun. It was heaven and the brussel sprouts were to die for!! |
Meanwhile, back at home, Nick ran a 19:21 5k and was 14th out of 150 runners. He is creeping up on breaking the 19 minute 5k and getting his letter in cross country. Steve sent me these pictures since I couldn't be there. Steve, Nick, Jeremy and Naomi went out for sushi to "celebrate".
Back in Atlanta, we sat up until WAAAAAY too late (or early depending on how you look at it). Everyone had piled on my bed to talk and I ended up falling completely asleep on the floor. When I woke up to use the bathroom a couple of hours later they were all still in the room talking. I asked what time it was and they were shocked to see it was 4 am. At that point they tucked me into my bed and went off to their own rooms to sleep. It was hilarious. The next morning we were out the door by 8 and on our way back home. Misty wanted to get home in time to see the kids before they went back to their mom and Aleena had some things she needed to get done for church. It was raining the whole way home. Normally this would not be anything significant, but it was the first rainstorm in Charlotte in 45 days. That is highly unusual, especially during hurricane season. We really needed the rain.
October 14th I got to sub for the art teacher, Mrs. Mervine. It was a fun and creative day. Jeremy had gone to urgent care to have a painful boil on his bottom looked at. They thought it might be MRSA and put him on an oral antibiotic along with some topical stuff. If it didn't get significantly better in a couple of days he was supposed to go back in to have it drained. WHAT!???!!!???? Another MRSA. This put me in to ultra cleaning mode that night. I wiped down everything with Clorox wipes. The dishes in the dishwasher were moldy since no one had bothered to run the thing while I was gone. YUCK! Got that fixed too.
October 15th I woke up with a really grumbly tummy. It had kept me up half the night gurgling and cramping. I couldn't take a sick day so I said a prayer that I would make it through the day and pushed through teaching seminary, subbing and helping with the book fair. I made it!! That night, while helping Jeremy take care of his boil, it exploded. We had put a warm wash cloth on it in preparation for the topical medicine. When I went to wipe the area clean it just started gushing, much like Nick's when they drained his. I hurried and got some more gauze and just kept cleaning the area until it stopped oozing. It was totally nasty, but Jeremy said it felt a lot better after that. It exploded two or three more time over the next several days before it finally stopped and got much better very quickly.
October 16th I let Nick stay home from school because it was the PSAT at school and all he would be doing, since he wasn't taking the test, was sitting in the lunchroom waiting for the test to be over which would have been about the time his classes were done for the day. I cleaned the bathrooms and Nick had his friend, Thomas, come over to work out. I helped Julie with decorations for the Fall Festival for a bit before going to pick Naomi up from school. That night was choir practice.
October 17th was Fall Break and Parent Teacher Conferences. After we visited with Naomi's teachers we went to Julie's house to help with the signs for the Fall Festival. Steve and I went to the volleyball senior night at school to support the girl and then got some grocery shopping done. Nick took everyone to youth for me so I could have time to get some things done.
October 18th we FINALLY moved the garden. Hopefully this is the final resting place. There is plenty of sun and the area is small so it should be more manageable. Nick helped me move the rest of the stones and the dirt. We rewarded ourselves with s'mores that night. The night was perfect for a fire.
October 19th we started the day with helping to clean the church. Steve took off after that to get some scout stuff done for the upcoming camp and I cleaned the house. Nick and Naomi went over to the Stewart's house and helped them clean up the leaves in their yard before the rain came. That night Nick went to Justice's birthday party and he met a really cute girl there who thought he was hot. He was so excited.
One day while I was subbing, Mrs. Mervine showed me Naomi's drawing while we were both on our breaks. It is an amazing self-portrait with a twist. I love the twist Naomi gave hers. She is so talented.
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| Naomi's self portrait drawing. |
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| Me and my "twin" |
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| We even strand alike. That was not planned. |
October 25th I subbed as Mrs. Rogowski the whole day and ended up not going to the pep rally because I had kids come into the library to escape the noise. It was a fun day. That night, Steve and the boys went camping with the men from church. Naomi and I took advantage of this time to go see the school play, "A Game". We really liked it.
October 26th was the Davidson football game and the Knight Riders had been invited back to play during the game. Just as we were leaving the house to go to the school Naomi told me she couldn't find her clarinet. She thought she had left it at school. Mr. Scaringelli let us into the middle school and we looked everywhere for it. I called Steve, who had just gotten home from camping, and he said the clarinet was under a pile of stuff under Naomi's desk. He ran it over to the school just in time for us to get on the bus. I drove the truck which was loaded with the drums and bigger instruments. We met the bus up on campus. Once we were all settled in the stands the kids started to feel the excitement of being at a college football game. They were also wearing their new uniforms for the first time. I think they really felt like they looked good because they sounded extra good as well. We got several comments about how much the fans liked having the band play.
October 28th I was in the library again and we were in charge of putting up new bulletin boards. The media assistants had a great time designing the new boards and they looked amazing when they were done. For one of them, we decided to put paper snowflakes as the border. Some of these kids had never cut out a paper snowflake before. How have they lived as long as they have without this experience!!!??!!! Needless to say, they had a great time learning a new skill and seeing it displayed on the bulletin board.
October 31st I was in the 7th grade. The math teachers were doing a unit on probability and to help the kids understand the statistics behind the probability they arranged a taste test. Each math class was divided into pairs and those pairs thought of something to use in a taste test. During their science classes, the kids went to the math rooms and participated in the taste tests. By the end of the day they were all so hopped up on sugar that it was kind of crazy. I was grateful for the final bell of the day. It was crazy, but fun.
That night, Barrett, Bella, and Grace come over for dinner (chicken noodle soup, rolls and pizza) before heading out the trick-or-treat. They had so much fun, which I was glad to see because this might be the last Halloween Naomi wants to do this. Nick and I stayed home and got him registered for the next SAT. We had a lot of trick-or-treaters. I was kind of surprised because we were supposed to get a monster storm that night and a lot of people were talking about going out on Friday night instead. One of the cutest group was all the kids from church that are in our neighborhood. They smelled the fresh rolls and came in to get one. It was a really fun night.
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| Barrett as Toothless, Naomi as her own cool creation (which she made), Bella and Grace as characters from Coraline and Jeremy in his antlers. |
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| Nick, at home, registering for the SAT. Can you see the excitement on his face? |
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| Trading the loot after a successful night of trick-or-treating.. |